A.G. Gancarski
Florida’s leading Democrat issued a dire warning about the upcoming Republican National Convention in Jacksonville on Saturday.
Nikki Fried, the state’s elected Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services, warned against the impending “super-spreader event,” one “incredibly irresponsible” at best “and dangerous at worst.”
“We have other priorities in the state, and that is the safety of our citizens,” Fried told Vice in an interview she tweeted Saturday. “And the reality is this is not the message we want to send to the state, to our citizens, to the country and the world.”
“Everybody’s watching Florida right now,” Fried said, adding the event was sure to drive “additional spread.”
“This would be a super-spreader event,” the first-term Democrat added.
The comments come as Fried takes center stage at the Florida Democratic Party’s Leadership Blue gala later Saturday evening, and continues a trend of increasingly pointed criticisms directed at the Republican-led response to COVID-19.
In national media appearances last week, the commissioner said Gov. Ron DeSantis didn’t “care” about Floridians.
Speaking with CNN’s Brianna Keilar, Fried said “the Governor has lost the faith and the trust from the people of our state.”
“They no longer believe that he has a plan for our future and they believe he’s never cared about them. There’s been no empathy shown whatsoever from this Governor and no humility that when we did flatten the curve, he went on the national circus and went across the entire state claiming mission accomplished.”
She offered even more pointed critiques the same day on Cheddar.
“Basically he’s shown no leadership,” Fried said. “Part of the problem is he’s not taking this seriously and so when he doesn’t take it seriously, how can businesses and the people of our state take it seriously?”
Fried’s latest blast comes as more grim numbers came in Saturday morning.
The state confirmed more than 10,000 additional COVID-19 cases Friday.
As of Saturday morning, 337,569 people have tested positive with the novel coronavirus in Florida, including 333,201 state residents. Meanwhile, the overall death toll in the state crossed 5,000, with 4,895 dead residents and 107 nonresidents.
The Governor will be in St. Augustine Saturday afternoon for a press conference, and if he addresses Fried’s latest charges, this piece will be updated.
2 comments
Frankie M.
July 18, 2020 at 3:42 pm
All IS WELL…REMAIN CALM.
I recently learned that public libraries were set to reopen before the most recent spike in Jax. Now they’re planning on reopening after the RNC. Look for schools to do the same. Children apparently are not as eager as their representatives to sacrifice themselves for the good of the economy. I know…dumb kids amirite?
DisplacedCTYankee
July 19, 2020 at 8:06 am
Fried is absolutely right.
Editorial note: Can everybody please stop using “RNC” as a acronym for Republican National Convention? RNC has been the acronym for Republican National Committee since jeesus rode a dinosaur to the Ark.
Editorial note #2:
First sentence of story: “Florida’s leading Democrat issued a dire warning about the upcoming Republican National Convention in Jacksonville on Saturday.”
This makes it sound like the convention is upcoming on Saturday.
I think this retired editor (me) needs to get out more 🙂
Comments are closed.